Well, go ahead and turn in your Bibles.
We will not be in Genesis. We will be in Mark chapter 10.
And what we're going to do, if you did not get a bulletin, but
you would like one, would you please raise your hand if you
would like the bulletin and the sermon note sheet.
Mr. Zinke is handing those out. So yeah, we'll be in Mark
chapter 10 next week. We will be back in Genesis,
Genesis for two more weeks. Then we'll take a break from
Genesis for the summer. Now ours is a proud and
egotistical culture, people pushing and promoting themselves
in ways that would have been completely unacceptable 20 years
ago. A new species of humanity has
emerged in the influencer promotion of self, self esteem,
self fulfillment, self glory. It has all become a major
industry self. This person does everything they
can to market themselves, to gain notoriety, likes and
clicks. And also they can be famous and
make a lot of money. Usually they don't make a lot of
money, most don't, but some do, some do.
Now seldom will you find an influencer who uses their
position and status for the purposes and good of others.
Most often pride and entitlement are on full display with the
influencer. As we approach our text this
morning, let me set the scene for us.
This is the lead up to Palm Sunday in Jesus triumphal entry
into Jerusalem. Jesus and a whole crowd of
people are literally walking up to Jerusalem preparing for the
triumphal entry. Jesus and is talking with with
his disciples and he knew what lay ahead of them.
And he said the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief
priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and
deliver him over to the Gentiles.
They will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him.
And after three days he will rise.
So this was now the the third time Jesus had told his
followers what was going to happen.
And even still, they I don't think they got it.
Their expectation was that Jesus was about to publicly set up the
messianic Kingdom. Now, honestly, I think the
response of these two, James and John and their mother, as we
learn in Matthew's accounts, was pretty rude.
They forgot to read the room. Jesus had just said what was
going to happen, that he was going to be crucified, that he
was going to die. And there's like, oh, wait, you
just said you were going to die. That's not what we were
planning. Does does that really have to
happen right now? We have so much going well for
us right now. We have this momentum.
Maybe we can just take over Jerusalem and and sit next to
you on your throne. So that's what's immediately
preceding this morning's text. If you're able, would you stand
as we read from Mark 10, verses 35 through 45?
And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said
to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of
you. And he said to them, What do you
want me to do for you? When they said to him, Grant us
to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your
glory. Jesus said to them, you do not
know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup
that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am
baptized? And they said to him, We are
able. And Jesus said to them, The cup
that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am
baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or
at my left hand. Hand is not mine to grant, but
As for those for whom it has been prepared.
And when the 10 heard it, they began to be indignant at James
and John. And Jesus called them to him and
said to them, You not, you know that those who are considered
rulers of the Gentiles Lord over them, and they're great ones,
Exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among
you. But whoever would be great among
you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you
must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not
to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many. You may be seated here.
Jesus turned this absurd question into a teaching moment.
Now this reminds me that discipleship isn't always a
formal process. We meet from this time to this
time, and we talk about this topic in the Bible.
Sure, that can be part of discipleship, but often
discipleship occurs in the everyday moments.
When we were raising our kids, we were always looking for
opportunities to speak into their lives and provide wisdom
for situations or simply ask questions.
Discipleship happened on the drive to school or dance or
football or CrossFit. It it happened spontaneously and
in the spur of the moment and and constantly happened around
the dinner table. We're always being attentive to
the teaching opportunities that life presented to us.
Jesus could have just said he didn't have the purview to judge
who sits on his right hand or his left.
Instead, he chose to teach the disciples a lesson here.
First let's look at the disciples character.
I think it's safe to say these men were a bit big for their
britches, as they say. Jesus told them you don't really
know what you're asking. And the response was, yeah,
yeah, we can drink the cup that that you're about to drink.
We can handle everything that comes our way.
And in a sense, Jesus affirmed them.
Well, you'll experience unnatural deaths, but I don't
determine who sits at my right hand and left hand.
James was the first apostle to be martyred and and John would
spend many years exiled on the island of Patmos.
So both of them experienced persecution.
But the disciples pride was on full display here.
Their request was full of pride. Their request was full of pride.
They didn't have the right view of themselves and and thought
more highly of their own character and value than was
realistic. And they should have thought
with eyes set on themselves and their own goals, they they asked
for positions of power and authority.
All the others got angry at James and John for this.
Was it because they thought it was rude?
No, actually it was because their hearts were filled with
the same selfish ambition and they were angry because they had
the same thoughts and feelings and they wanted those positions
of authority for themselves. Then in verse 42, Jesus teaches
the disciples about worldly greatness.
Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that
those who are considered rulers as the Gentiles Lord it over
them and their great ones exercise authority over them.
Jesus pointed out that that the Gentiles, that is, those who
aren't God's people, don't act in a godly manner.
Their rulers act in a domineering and oppressive way,
lording their position and status over those who are under
them in an exploitative manner. This is how the world works.
But those who belong to God and follow Jesus are to act in a
different manner. In Ephesians 6, Paul tells
masters to treat their bond servants well and to not
threaten them. Now.
Jesus was constantly subverting the world's standards, flipping
expectations. If the world said right, he said
left. If they said up, then he said
down. Kingdom living is a
countercultural movement in Acts in response to situations in a
manner that is drastically different than worldly
expectations. Now let's look at what it means
to live out those countercultural values and real
Kingdom greatness. Verse 3.
But it shall not be so among you.
But whoever would be great among you must be your servants, and
whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
So don't act the same way the gentiles in the world act.
That's not to be the way of Christ's followers.
Greatness isn't found in power and authority.
Jesus turned the world's greatness upside down.
The self glorifying, self-serving, self promoting
ways of the world are the antithesis of spiritual
greatness. These ways aren't fit for Christ
followers. The world seeks after power and
authority because they don't know any better.
But that's not what Jesus taught James and John here.
Now, positions of authority aren't intrinsically bad.
Someone has to be at the top in a position of authority.
But it's the how and why that matter.
How did you get to the position? Was it honestly and through hard
work and humility, or was it through deceit and manipulation,
tearing everyone down on your way to the top?
Why did you aspire to the position?
Did you aspire to the position for selfish motives and status?
Did you see it as a way to, or did you see it as a way to serve
others and be helpful? Wrong motives, bad motives say a
lot about a person's character. In First Timothy 3, Paul tells
us if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a
noble task. That means it's good to be the
pastor of a church, to be in a position of authority.
And Peter gives us some clarity on this topic in First Peter 5
when he addresses the pastor's motives.
Shepherding a church isn't to be done for shameful, selfish gain
or a desire to control and domineer others.
Jesus taught them that greatness isn't found in power and
authority. It's OK to be in a position of
authority. But He didn't just leave it at
that. He instructed them on how to be
great. It's important to say that this
greatness isn't according to the world standards.
This is Kingdom greatness. If we come to the conversation
with the world's definition of greatness, then we'll completely
miss the point here. Now, according to God's
standards, greatness is found in serving.
Greatness is found in serving. But whoever would be great among
you must be your servants, and whoever would be first among you
must be slave of all. Here Jesus redefined greatness.
This is greatness according to God's standard.
In order to be great in God's upside down Kingdom, you need to
be a servant. James and John wanted positions
of preeminence and power in God's Kingdom, the same type we
read about in verse 44. Whoever would be first among
you, that was James and John. Now here Jesus was promoting
something of a much different flavor and and quality.
Greatness that's pleasing to God and which is characterized by
humility and self sacrifice rather than pride and
self-serving. The world seeks greatness by
pleasing others and having them serve you in and do your
bidding. They do whatever you want.
That's the world's greatness. However, greatness that's
pleasing to God is found in doing His will and serving
others in His name. The one who's truly great in
God's eyes is the one who is the willing servant.
You might ask, but isn't it wrong for someone to say I want
to serve so I can be the greatest in the Kingdom?
Well, if your motive is actually simply to be better than
everyone else and get ahead of them, then you've kind of missed
the point here. One could devolve into a martyr
complex if you're serving out of the wrong motive.
Look at what I did here. Look at how busy I am for God.
Look at all the ways I serve him.
Serving is important, but when you lose track of God, then
you're simply doing stuff and not actually worshipping God in
your serving. Now in this verse, the word
servant is differentiated from the word slave.
The word servant is actually the word diaconos, from which we get
our word Deacon. Originally this word didn't have
a patently religious or spiritual connotation to it is
simply referred to someone who did menial labor like house
cleaning or serving tables. It wasn't a term of dishonor,
but it was used to describe the lowest level of hired help.
It didn't take much to be a diaconos.
You needed no special training or or skill for the position.
You could be hired and generally could learn what you needed to
learn on the job. That was the diaconos.
The position of the slave which Jesus had called these men to
was even lower than the diaconos.
The servant, you see, was his own person.
He he didn't own much he but he was free to work where he
wanted. This was the position that many
people occupied when they needed to pay off the debts.
They could be employed as a servant and work off the debt
they'd accumulated. The slave, however, is
different. The slave doesn't have the same
freedom. The slave actually belonged to
the master and can only go where where the master wanted him to
go, and could only do what the master wanted him to do.
The slave was the personal property of someone else.
The master, now slave is Paul's common description of himself.
He frequently calls himself a slave of Christ.
He leads with this point even before identifying himself as an
apostle. He calls himself a slave of
Christ. He acknowledged that his body
and life weren't his own. They belong to the one who
bought them. Jesus bought Paul with his
blood. So greatness isn't found in
power and authority. Greatness is found in serving.
And greatness comes from humility.
Greatness comes from humility. Paul lived this out, and he was
dedicated to godly greatness. He didn't want the accolades for
himself, but rather for Christ, the one who knows our motives.
In First Corinthians 4-5, Paul says, Therefore do not pronounce
judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring
to light the things now hidden in darkness, and who will
disclose the purposes of the heart.
Then each one will receive his commendation, Not condemnation
commendation. That's a good thing from God on
the day of judgment. For those who followed after
God, our accolades and glory will come from Him.
The good things we've done that we didn't advertise to others,
the selfless serving, the purity of our motives will all be
demonstrated on that day. When that happens we'll receive
hopefully commendation for being faithful and following Jesus
example. Only God knows the motives and
true intentions of our hearts. Now.
Humility in serving is is going to the hard, difficult, lonely
places no one wants to go, doing the things that no one wants to
do, making ourselves uncomfortable, perhaps risking
persecution and and being ostracized, all for the sake of
God's glory and greatness. Paul knew life was short and the
eternity was long, so he was willing to spend and be spent
for God's glory. He was willing to risk it all
and did so without succumbing to self pity or a what was me type
of attitude. His humility allowed him to
endure persecution and trial after trial after trial without
succumbing to a desire for fairness or entitlements.
I've experienced all this. Surely I'm owed something else.
His perspective instead was though his outer self, that is,
his body, was wasting away. There are trials and struggles
in life that take a toll on someone.
He was being renewed each day and the struggles were just
light, momentary afflictions when compared to the joy of an
eternity in glory. Now, it's important for us to
acknowledge a key point here. Jesus didn't call these men to
something that He wasn't willing to do Himself.
No, He called them to follow his own example of greatness.
Now granted we can't literally do all the things that Jesus
did, but he called them to follow his example.
Verse 45 says even the Son of man came not to be served but to
served. The phrase son of man is used 82
times in the New Testament and is Jesus favor and most used
title to refer to himself. When he used it Jesus was
appealing to his humanity. The phrase son of denotes a
certain quality, sameness to that thing which it is named
after. That means when he used the
phrase son of man he was calling himself human.
In spite of being the son of God, Jesus clothed himself in
humanity and became the son of man.
That means Jesus purpose was serving.
His purpose was serving. The whole point of him coming
into the world was to serve. Philippians 2 tells us Jesus,
who was in the very nature God, God himself, didn't hold to his
rights as God, as the Lord of all, the Creator of everything.
He had the right to be served by others and to hold on to his
rights. He had that right.
Instead, Jesus chose to humble himself and take the form of a
slave. So He is the supreme example of
humility and servanthood as He came into this world to serve by
clothing himself with humanity. He went to the cross, and He
bore our sin on Himself. He chose to give up His life
because He thought higher of you and I than He did His own
rights. Verse 45 continues.
Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to
give His life as a ransom for many.
So what is a ransom? This ransom?
Here Jesus paid the price the Father's justice required.
Simply put, Jesus paid the price that the Father's justice
required. This verse is the first explicit
New Testament teaching about the Messiah's work of redemption.
A ransom is a payment to affect the release of slaves or
captives from bondage. Now scholars have vigorously
debated what this ransom is and and who it was paid to.
Was the ransom paid to Satan or was the ransom paid to God the
Father? Well, Jesus didn't owe Satan
anything. He didn't pay a ransom to Satan.
The ransom was paid to God the Father.
Because of His justice, God is just.
God's justice means that our sin has to be punished.
We stand condemned under the law of sin and death.
Jesus was the only one who qualified to pay the price for
our sin. He was human, but as God, he
could not and did not sin, and that qualified him to pay the
ransom. The ransom price that we sinners
are incapable of pain. Paul tells us those who are in
Christ Jesus are no longer condemned.
We've been set free from the law of sin and death.
Jesus purchased our freedom from sin by coming in the likeness of
sinful flesh and being condemned for us.
This fulfilled God's righteous requirement and it brought us
back from our enslavement to sin as the ransom payment.
Jesus vicariously suffered for the sins of humanity.
He literally gave His life as payment for ours.
Also, we could be free. This new freedom we have in
Christ means we can follow His example.
We can be servants through the Holy Spirit's empowering.
We can think more highly of others than we do ourselves.
We can voluntarily serve their interests and not our own
selfish desires. We can embrace true greatness by
serving rather than the world's form of false greatness.
William Barclay had this to say when comparing the world's gauge
versus God's standard for greatness.
The world may assess a man's greatness by the number of
people whom he controls and who are at his beckon call, or by
his intellectual standing in his academic eminence, or the number
of committees of which he is a member, or by the size of his
bank balance and the material possessions which he has
amassed. But in the assessment of Jesus
Christ these things are irrelevance.
Only that which is spent on God, following him and serving Him,
is of any value. By living the upside down
Kingdom, we aim to someday hear the words well done, good and
faithful servants. You've been faithful over a
little. I will set you over much.
Enter into the joy of your master.
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.
Father God, we thank you for this opportunity this morning to
look into your word that that teaches us how to live here on
this Serve Sunday as we prepare to go out.
We could easily just go out into the community and, and do these
acts of service and not think anything else of it.
But the reason we do it, the reason we go out in the
community and serve is because we are following your example
because you called us to serve. You came into this world to
serve. You had the right to be served.
But that's not what you claimed. So we follow your example,
Jesus, and we serve you. We serve you here in the church.
We serve you out wherever we go. And it's our joy to do so out of
grateful hearts for what you have done in our lives.
It's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.